OECD Releases New Tax Information Exchange Ratings

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

11 August 2015

The OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has published new peer review reports for 12 jurisdictions on the implementation of its global standards on transparency and the exchange of information in tax matters.

Phase 1 reports for Albania, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Pakistan, and Uganda assessed these territories' legal and regulatory frameworks for transparency and the exchange of information on request. They were said to have the legal frameworks in place to enable them to move to the next stage of the review process, which will assess how their exchange of information regimes operate in practice.

The Global Forum also reviewed exchange of information practices through Phase 2 peer review reports in Lithuania and Sint Maarten. Both were said to be compliant with the individual elements of the international standard. Lithuania received an overall rating of "Compliant" and Sint Maarten was given an overall rating of "Partially Compliant."

Following a supplementary review, the Marshall Islands was allowed to move to Phase 2, after addressing gaps in its regulatory and legislative framework during an earlier review.

Austria, which was rated "Partially Compliant" in July 2013, has since implemented a number of recommendations by the Global Forum, leading to a rating upgrade to "Largely Compliant." The British Virgin Islands was also said to have made improvements under its Phase 2 review to move from a standing of "Non-Compliant" to "Largely Compliant."

The Global Forum is the world's largest international tax group, with 127 members on an equal footing. The Forum has now completed 198 peer reviews and assigned compliance ratings to 80 jurisdictions that have undergone Phase 2 reviews. Of these, 21 jurisdictions are rated "Compliant," 46 are rated "Largely Compliant," 10 are rated "Partially Compliant," and three jurisdictions are "Non-Compliant."

11 jurisdictions have been blocked from moving to a Phase 2 review due to their lacking legal and regulatory frameworks.